Reading the books
by Featherfur
Summary: Pertemis, slightly different than usual, A read the lightning thief story.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N Watching Percy Jackson the movie. It seems so stupid since I've read the books and I found myself correcting what happened until my dad yelled at me to stop I was so mad when Grover said he hated country music because it's my favorite. Future gods will be underlined dragons will be italicized._

Disclaimer- don't own Percy Jackson. Sadly.

Third pov

It was the Winter Solstice and the gods were fighting again and Hestia as sitting at her hearth.

Hestia pov

Oh how I wish my family could get along, they are always fighting except Dionysus all he does is sleep. One day I swear I'm going to light is throne on fire, or have Jordan do it she seems to like pranks. That would be hilarious. But seriously what is with all the fighting Artemis is smacking Apollo, Zeus is pretending to listen to Hera as she yells at him once again, Hermes is thinking of his next plan, Athena and Poseidon just glaring at each other, Hades is thinking of his wife as Demeter yells at him. Ares is being an idiot and Hephaestus is glaring at him. Aphrodite is trying to convince Artemis that she is stupid to forsake love.

I was about to turn them all to flame before a gold portal appeared out stepped 7 people 5 wore cloaks. Immediately Zeus became aware of them.

"Who are you and how dare you come here?" He thundered lightning flashed outside. He always was dramatic.

A bright light shone then a letter floated down to one of the non-cloak wearing ones, she was blonde with gray eyes. A daughter of Athena.

"I can't read it." She looked like she was going to give it to one of the gods when a cloaked one spoke

"You can give it here." He was wearing a sea-green cloak. The girl seemed angry.

"I have a name and how do you know how to read."

"Does it seem like I care and Artemis taught me duh." Did he say Artemis; he must be talking about someone else because I know our Artemis never would. He read the note.

Dear gods, Demigods and weird thing we call Jordan,

It has come to our attention that you guys need to see what will happen in the future. So we brought back theses demigods to read the life of the hero Percy Jackson. All demigods must put in full title sorry Percy. Gods may join them soon so be prepared.

Bye,

Artemis, and the awesome Apollo and Hermes

P.S. Future Poseidon would like to say to his younger self NOT to destroy Athena as things will change but Zeus will always be paranoid heartless bastard.

Most of us laughed at the last bit but Zeus just fumed.

"Nice to know I'm a thing." I knew that voice I turned to its owner a saw another cloaked this one had stars, the moon, lighting, a trident, and every other sign of the Olympians. I noticed each of the cloaked figures had a crest on them. Instead of a lion and unicorn it was a dragon and Pegasus.

"Anyways who wants to go first?" the green cloaked one spoke again. Everyone looked at him.

He sighed and pulled back his hood. His black hair was thrown in all directions and he had sparkling green eyes which reminded me of some one.

"Hey my name is Percy Jackson my tittles are slayer of Kronos, Hero of Olympus, one of the seven, destroyer of Gaia, bane of the Minotaur, Leader of the Warriors of In Scutum, brother of Jordan, God of Tides, Time, and acids. Everything else shall be revealed in the books."

Now another stepped up this one with a blue cloak. "My name is Thalia I'm daughter of Zeus, co-goddess of the hunt, and honorary warrior."

Before anyone can ask what she meant two cloaked ones stepped up.

"Travis and," one said "Connor Stoll" together "Honorary members of the Warriors, children of the awesome Hermes who, by the way is the best of the Olympians." Hermes seemed pleased at this but the others had something else on their mind.

Percy and Thalia saying "No way Artemis and Poseidon are the best." This was all I could discern from the noise. Though I heard my name said a few times. Soon a boy in a black cloak stepped up.

"My name is Nico Di Angelo, Son of Hades who locked me in the Lotus Casino so I'm not evidence of him breaking the oath, Lieutenant for the warriors, and Nightmare's rider." Two more stepped up one in a gold cloak and the other bearing our various symbols, the one in gold went first when he flipped his hood It was obvious who his father was.

"My name is Will Solace Son of Apollo, immortal healer of the Warriors, honorary warrior." Then the other one stepped up.

"If yall don't know who I am I'm tacking ya to a mental facility." We gaped at her only 1 person would talk to us like that.

"Jordan" Apollo said she grinned at him.

"Yep" She popped the P she looked at me and saluted.

Then the remaining two stepped up neither was wearing a cloak.

"I'm Annabeth Daughter of Athena and architect of Olympus." The next one stepped up.

"Jacob, Son of-"A tiger appeared out of nowhere and jumped on him stopping his words.

"Finish that sentence and I will rip your body to pieces." It said growling. The boy Will ran up and I was about to yell at him to get back when he laid his hand on its body.

"Jordan calm down." I realized it must be Jordan in her animal form. She growled at him but he refused to move he put his hand out palm up.

"Bells…." She relented and jumped on his arm in ermine form.

The remaining demigods were also glaring at Jacob except Annabeth who immediately helped him up. Zeus seemed amused at this but was in for a surprise when Love seats appeared and couches. Percy took a love seat to himself, Jordan and Will shared one (this had Apollo in protective father mode while fighting inside since Will was his son.), Thalia, Nico, Connor, and Travis shared a couch as far away from Annabeth and Jacob, on their love seat, as they could.

"So shall we start?" Athena asked she held 5 books and brought out the first one. We all nodded yes so she read on.

Third Pov

"**I accidently Vaporize my math teacher"**

A bright flash of light filled the room and out stepped a dragon, a demigod, and Artemis.

Artemis yelled out "Perseus Jackson why in hell would you agree to this thing without talking to me personally?" He paled and stuttered out

"Because Apollo said you agreed and I wanted to get it over without any one being attacked by Jordan." She seemed to like this answer because she sat down next to him on the seat. When the gods looked at her strangely. She sighed and said

"I'm guessing that Percy didn't tell you we're getting married." This caused a horrible uproar during which the dragon settled its self behind them and the Demigod join the ones on the couch. Finally Jordan shouted over the noise.

"It was either him or Triton and Percy is better in every way and while we're on the subject I'm dating Will so if anyone has any problems they can take it up with me." She looked so annoyed that not even Zeus dared go against her. The others introduced themselves.

_Luna Percy's dragon._

"Clarisse Daughter of Ares, drakon slayer and honorary warrior." Ares beamed at his daughter but she ignored him which confused him.

Athena repeated the title and everyone gave Percy weird looks.

"Really Wimp what was your first monster a baby mouse." Jacob said.

"Shut up_ boy" _It was Artemis this time but before she could do anything else Percy put his hand on her shoulder and drew her back. She motioned for Athena to read.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"None of us do" muttered Clarisse

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now.**

Athena slapped away Apollo and Hermes' hands as they tried to close the book

**Believe what-ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Wouldn't work Kelpie." Jordan and Artemis smirked; Percy groaned "The one time I show you a kelpie and you to never let me live it down.

"Tell Us, tell us please." Apollo and Hermes pleaded. Thalia took pity on them and said "Long story short Jordan and Artemis went with Percy to see a Kelpie and it beat his butt and Artemis had to save him since Jordan just sat down and ate a chocolate bar." Everybody laughed at him as he hid his face in Artemis' hair.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. **

"Check" said the Stolls.

**It's scary.**

"Check" This time Thalia and Nico

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Check" now it was Clarisse.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being**

**able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

"Why would a mortal read this." Demeter questioned. Percy just shrugged.

"That reminds me can we bring Persephone up here." Hades asked.

"Yea can we." It was Nico and he was getting a lot of weird looks.

"She's like my mom now." He shrugged and Zeus sent Hermes to bring her up there. When she arrived instead of going to her mother she sat down next to Hades.

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading**

**immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they**

**sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Who" it was Apollo, Hermes, Jordan, Will, and the Stolls

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me" guess who.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private**

**school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes" Every one of the future people said.

"Thanks guys" Percy mumbled

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"You even admit it" Artemis said.

"Shut up"

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last**

**May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two**

**teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds fun," Annabeth said it this time.

"I don't know about you but it sounds like torture to me" Artemis and Poseidon looked at each other

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

Annabeth glared at him which he ignored but Luna glared at her instead and she backed down.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy**

**beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

"Sounds like Chiron" Everyone looked shocked to see Dionysus paying attention.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman**

**armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"You sleep in class" Athena yelled outraged

"Calm down Athena jeez" Poseidon tried to get her to shut up.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy was I wrong.**

"When aren't you?"

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the**

**Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school**

**bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a**

**behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and**

**our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"No tell us more please, please." Hermes, Jordan, and the Stolls begged.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting**

**my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"She was What!" Thalia was literally sparking in anger.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held**

**back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his**

**chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. **

_I'm sure Grover would love that. _Luna commented.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life**

**because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but**

**don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Grover's going to give himself up." Nico mumbled

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she**

**knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had**

**threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly**

**entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"DO IT" Ares and Thalia yelled before glaring at each other.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"So do I but not in my hair." Squealed Aphrodite.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

"Who'll get blamed?" Hermes said it.

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension**

**would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer than that" Athena who would've guessed

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling**

**us how it was a grave marker, astele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of inter-esting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia**

"I take offense at that" Jordan growled from her spot on Will's lap.

**who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"Nope that's Nico,"

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Groverrrrrrrrrrrr" The demigods groaned.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did," Artemis groaned.

"Idiot," Jacob said smirking Jordan reached over grabbed the items Hephaestus was messing with and threw it at Jacob.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture**

**represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating**

**his kids, right?"**

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"God, he isn't awesome enough to be one." Everyone stared at Clarisse before Artemis slapped Percy for it.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate**

**them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus**

**grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Try living through it." Hera shivered

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going**

**to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this**

**matter in real life?"**

"Busted" The Stolls snickered

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"Nooooo, You think like a goat." Nico pretended to cry but it got even Artemis and Thalia to start giggling.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything**

**wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Or horse ears," Will muttered

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Happy note?"

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doo-fuses.**

"When aren't they doo-fuses," Artemis commented, Thalia nodded her head.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Not quite Perseus." Persephone said to him. He looked at her sadly.

"Can you please just say Percy, Perseus makes me feel like I'm in trouble."

"Is that why you used to flinch when I said your name." Artemis asked and Percy nodded

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

"The best answer in the world."

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept**

**only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard. I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and**

**shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every**

**Greek and Roman per-son who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But**

**Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and**

**attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like**

**he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"Probably was,"

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured**

**maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been**

**weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I**

**wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.**

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds**

**wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Yours Hermes." Poseidon said disgusted.

"Not every kleptomaniac is mine."

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did**

**that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't**

**make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"No duh Spawn your father is even stupider." Annabeth again. Percy snapped and drew a pen out.

"What are you going to do to her write on her." Jacob and Ares laughed but Percy ignored them.

"Annabeth I suggest you shut your mouth because one thing I won't tolerate is you of all people insulting my family." Percy had stood up and was in front of her as he walked back he saw his dad sit up straighter with smile on his face

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep**

**philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Oh, Grover. What would we do without you."

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

"oh, but you won't let me borrow 10 bucks." Jordan said looking hurt.

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Such a sweet boy." Hestia said softly and he smiled at her.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized**

**cafe table. I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Thalia was growling now.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had**

**spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your**

**temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain,**

**screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

Hades and Zeus roared in anger. "POSEIDON"

Athena yelled out, "Zeus don't yell at Poseidon when your own DAUGHTER is in the same room."

Thalia was glaring at her dad so hard it mad Hades' look like a baby's. Zeus backed down.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the**

**museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd one something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to**

**death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"Stupid brave satyr."

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"Probably not as good as mine." Ares boasted and Artemis shook her head as Percy glared at him, he visibly shivered as Jordan and Hephaestus laughed about him getting what he deserved. When Hermes asked Clarisse why she didn't support her dad she replied,

"I'd rather not support someone who will eventually wish I had died instead of his favorite son." She said bitterly, Percy, who was on the couch next to her, put his hand on her shoulder and raised an eyebrow but she just shook her head. Percy sighed and put his chin on Artemis' shoulder before motioning for Athena to continue to read.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there.**

**She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to**

**come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

Hades gulped and paled and so did Nico.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

Poseidon groaned and said "You just had to go after it didn't you." Percy just grinned.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and**

**Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Great my son might die and Chiron is reading"

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of**

**the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was**

**making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs.**

**Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. **

"You did something safe the world must be ending."

"Shut up Artemis, I think you're going to give Dad a heart attack." Poseidon had paled at her comment.

**I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"You keep thinking that." Apollo said weakly.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. **

"Uncle P I love your kid,"

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make**

**me read the book.**

Before Athena could remark Percy said quickly. "Actually I read the book later on but I hated it I had no idea what was happening."

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched,**

**turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. **

Poseidon gripped his throne.

Loud snoring filled the air and everyone turned to see Ares and Dionysus asleep. Jordan leaned over and whispered to Hephaestus who passed her some strange objects and she quickly placed them all around their thrones. Jordan nodded to Hephaestus and Hestia who both sent a small flame towards her, she created her own flame and put each one in a different part of the thrones. She yelled a quick "DUCK" and the items exploded and when the smoke cleared Dionysus' throne was on fire and had bunnies hopping on his head and Ares had a smashed pie on his face and his throne was gone.

Next thing they knew Travis and Connor were begging her to go pranking with her.

**Then things got even stranger.**

Poseidon's grip on his throne tightened.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

Poseidon relaxed and his throne no longer threatened to break.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"You always were a wimp and a coward no wonder Annabeth dumped you, and at least Dad came to his senses for a little bit and said I was his favorite son. But he always was a fool like you."

The demi-gods jumped up bristling at the insult to their friend, Luna was growling along with Jordan, and Artemis looked murderous.

"You are no son of Poseidon and remind me again whose first monster was a baby hellhound and who had to have help to defeat said hellhound." At the look of cold fury on Percy's face even the gods were scared. Jacob backed down but remained glaring at them. Luna blew a ring of fire at him, as Artemis led Percy to the couch and tried to get him to calm down.

When he finally did he had Artemis' head on his lap and motioned for Athena to continue reading.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

Suddenly Percy burst out laughing and when asked why he said "Just imagining Alecto attacking a jar of honey." That set off Apollo and Hermes

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

"You're powerful, demigod."

"Thank you Queen Hera," Percy bowed his head in respect.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"No Hermes I will not grow you magic mushrooms." Demeter looked ready to smack him.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing**

**there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Boys give this satyr lying lessons as soon as possible." Guess who.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As**

**far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Now Chiron, Chiron can lie."

_A/N REVIEW, REVIEW REVIW REVIEW please_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N I need reviews pls but thx to everyone who followed or favorited. When I say all demigods I mean all but Jacob and Annabeth._

They were about to start when Ares finally came out of his daze.

"Jordan, why did you blow up my throne?" He roared at her. She wasn't fazed at all actually she was leaning against a pillar and eating a block of chocolate.

"Because I felt like it," She replied cheekily smirking at him. In his anger he sent a giant dog (his sacred animal) to attack her. The dog launched itself at her but she transformed into a tiger and met it mid-jump, she knocked it over and it perished, then she launched herself at Ares. She bowled him over and put her claws on his throat.

_I would suggest never trying to harm me again or you'll feel my own anger._ She said it through her mind loud enough for everyone to hear her before jumping of him and transforming into mouse to play with Apollo's shoe strings. Ares looked so shocked that someone stood up to him that he couldn't get angry.

Aphrodite was so horrified at what happened that she left Ares' side and sat next to her husband.

After the gods got over their shock Athena passed the book over to Poseidon.

"**Three old ladies knit the socks of death."**

"Oh great Percy another chapter to give me a heart attack." Poseidon mumbled but Percy just smirked at him.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This**

**Twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. **

"Actually it was just Grover and Chiron," Jordan grinned at Percy as he did the mature thing (for a 5 year old) and stuck his tongue out at her.

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she go on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"You are psycho." Will and Jacob stated before glaring at each other. Will looked ready to shoot him where the sun doesn't shine but Percy quickly calmed him down.

"Stoppen mein Freund, lass ihn in Ruhe wird er bekommen, was er verdient."

The gods looked shocked and finnaly Aphrodite stuttered something out.

„You can speak German" Percy nodded and replied.

„Its the language we use to communicate in the warriors since we have all kinds of ethnicities. And Jordan is German so we used that."

„I just can't believe you know what Ethnicities are." Artemis giggled Percy poked her and told her to shut up. And when she didn't hit him the gods were once again shocked exspecially when she put her head on his lap.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"Wanna bet 20 drachmas it was Grover." Apollo asked Hermes.

"You're on."

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Pay up bro." Hermes grumbled the entire time as he handed over his money.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim**

**she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"No duh Idiot." Needless to say Percy couldn't hold Jordan back and Jacob was attacked by wolves.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

Poseidon glared at Hades with a look that promised pain.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. **

"Why is Zeus angry?" Hermes questioned

"When isn't Zeus angry?" Hades remarked causing Poseidon to stop glaring at him and laugh with him as Zeus grumbled about no one having any respect for him. To which Jordan replied.

"Maybe you would get more respect if you paid more attention to your wife instead of whatever your damn paranoia is telling you." Hera smiled gently at Jordan who smiled back but not before she and Thalia glared at Zeus.

**A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. **

"What's got your toga in a twist Barnacle Beard?"

Percy whispered to Artemis "It's so weird to see Athena insult Dad." She nodded in agreement.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"He really is your son Kelp Head." Athena remarked while Poseidon glared at her.

"No one can be as smart as you."

Athena grinned "I'm going to take that as a compliment." Poseidon just turned away but Percy knew he was smiling.

_I guess he liked her even back then_ Luna remarked to Percy who nodded.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

"Did you beat her?" Ares said and Aphrodite threw her shoe at him.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

The gods and demigods started giggling while Apollo and Nico tried to figure out what it meant.

"It means." Athena clamped a hand over Poseidon's mouth before he could comment. "An old drunkard or Dionysus at camp." This caused another round of laughter before Athena smacked Poseidon for licking her hand.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

You are so sweet Percy." Persephone and Hestia cooed.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Percy and Jordan started growling. Percy asked why she was mad she replied in his mind as she climbed up Apollo's arm.

_I was keeping an eye on you for your father when he came out side and tried to beat me and I was in puppy form._

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the**

**Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,**

"So sweet." Persephone cooed again.

**even if he was a little strange.**

"Nice Percy you're so nice." Clarisse said in a stage-whisper

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner ha**

**told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology**

**across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing**

**one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. **

"Poor boy." Surprisingly it was Athena who said this despite the weird looks she got. Poseidon smiled at her and she smiled back before motioning for him to continue reading.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"You can now." Poseidon paled at this.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"I hated Latin class Aphrodite kept trying to get me to go out with boys the whole time." Jordan shivered much to the amusement of everyone else and Aphrodite blushed and put her head on Hephaestus' shoulder much to his surprise. From Percy's spot he could see Jordan grinning like crazy at the site of them.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Travis and Connor's eyes lit up at the prank idea.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression; his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some**

**pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to**

**leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Sooo sweet don't you think darling." Persephone and Aphrodite asked their husbands. They both answered the same way.

"Of Course they are love." Though from Hades' face he was just saying it so his wife didn't yell at him.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a**

**question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said"... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Sure you're not." Hermes said.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"True I couldn't do it." Zeus said.

"Of course not." Hera said harshly and everyone jumped forgetting she was there.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature**

**more."**

"A lot more." Artemis giggled

"You're out to torture me aren't you?" Percy said back.

"Yep," She said popping the 'p'

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line—"**

"What deadline?" Athena asked the demigods shook their heads.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her..."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now**

**let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"No never reveal your position." Hermes, the Stolls, and surprisingly Clarisse shouted at everyone's looks she said.

"Chris" everyone nodded their heads and left the past gods in the dark.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good leave no evidence."

"Hermes stop trying to corrupt my son."

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller**

**than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clip-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an**

**animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"What happened at the solstice?" Zeus asked but they ignored him.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"Won't work Pedro." Guess who.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Oh the horror I might just die." Hermes, Apollo, the Stolls, Jordan, and Nico yelled dramatically.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek**

**and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Jordan, Thalia, and Artemis were growling, and Clarisse even looked ready to punch someone.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

"Wimp." Jacob and Ares were soon electrocuted, speared, doused with water, attacked by owls, ravaged by wolves and clawed by a dragon. When everyone looked at Athena since she sent the owls she just shrugged.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he**

**believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"Not the nicest thing to hear."

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy.**

**That's nothing to be—"**

**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a**

**hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile**

**delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or**

**ambassadors or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I wouldn't exactly call your father a nobody." It was Athena and when she saw the weird looks she just yelled.

"WHAT"

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine**

**subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd**

**booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again,**

**heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other**

**passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he**

**expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased.**

**But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"You probably gave him a heart attack." Thalia said shaking her head.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"No you never confess." It was Persephone which caused Demeter to glare at Hades.

"Look at what you did to my precious daughter she thinks like a thief." Hades just sighed and Persephone, who was mad at her mom at the moment, laid her head on his shoulder and everyone but Poseidon missed the look of pure joy on his face.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"Oh not much, just the entire conversation." Artemis teased.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math**

**teachers ..."**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

"Grover is a really, really bad liar." Thalia said exasperated.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"NOOOO You think like Percy." Nico and Hermes shouted while Percy put on his fake hurt face.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me**

**this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script,**

"Why is it like that?" questioned Jordan

"It's funny to watch kids try to read it." Dionysus answered.

"But what if they don't have Dyslexia like me or if their parent gets mad at you." He didn't answer

**which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something**

**like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800)009-0009**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"Percy" Artemis yelled and slapped him.

"Sorry" he said in a small voice.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect**

**you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get**

**beaten up next year without me. **

"You are so sweet Percy." Aphrodite squealed.

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our**

**side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and**

**apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Poseidon paled as he realized what was happening.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face.**

**His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I**

**heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. **

Everyone paled as they realized what was happening.

**The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

Apollo and Hermes gave a forced laugh.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment**

**The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't**

**It was something else, something almost—older.**

"Observant" Athena mused.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

Poseidon closed the book and Jordan spoke up.

"I think it's time for bed cause it's 12:00 I'll take them to the rooms." They followed Jordan out but Travis had to be carried out since he fell asleep. Each room had the characteristics of their parents but Jordan didn't have one so she just slept outside.

Around 3:00 am Hermes walked past and nudged Jordan in wolf form and she woke up. She turned into an eagle and together they flew out towards Aphrodite's mansion where Apollo was waiting for them.

"Aphrodite I need some pink supplies I'm going to prank…" Aphrodite cut Jordan off.

"That no good bastard who was stupid enough to try and test you." Jordan nodded and Aphrodite handed her supplies and whispered in her ear.

"I think my husband has cameras to record with." Jordan nodded and whispered back.

"Nice to hear you finally call him your husband." Then they launched off to Hephaestus'.

"Hep, Hep I need some camera please I'm feeling a little angry at Ares at the moment." Hephaestus handed her the stuff and made her promise that she would bring her a copy.

When they got to Ares' place they changed everything pink and his bird guardians were turned into fluffy pink and blue bunnies. They changed his clothes into dresses but made it so if he looked at it, it would appear like his normal clothes unless he looked at himself in the mirror. Then they painted his face so it looked like a Barbie doll with too much make up then they took pictures and set up video cameras.

NEXT MORNING

The three pranksters were in the kitchen when everyone but Ares came in. Will kissed Jordan on the cheek and asked if she did it last night she just smirked in response. About an hour later Ares showed up in the most frilly dress imaginable and make up like a dolls and bows in his hair. He looked so funny even Hera was laughing to her heart's content. Clarisse found it funny that he couldn't even figure out that they were laughing at him and went so far as to ask Percy to ask his father to claim her instead.

_A/N I was so happy at the reviews and the amount of followers I got that I decided to update again today but they won't be every day since school starts again tomorrow. I'll try every other day but it may be once a week. And even though I love Clarisse I can't stand Ares sorry and by the way any ideas to put in the next chappie just pm or review._


	3. Chapter 3

As they were walking into the throne room wondering were Jordan had got to, they heard singing. When they entered the room Jordan was listening to her iPod but when she caught sight of them she shrieked in fight and threw her iPod at Hermes who was laughing.

"Stop laughing Hermes you scared the Hades out of me, gods." After laughing for a good 10 minutes during which a lot of demigods got hit, they finally went back to the book. Apollo was picked to read and everyone sat in their original seats except Aphrodite who sat next to her husband.

"**Grover expectantly loses he's pants"**

"Apollo read it right," Hera admonished

"I am," He said snickering. Hermes and Dionysus laughed. Yes I said Dio.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

Groans filled the room.

**I know, I know. It was rude. **

"Then why did you do it." Athena asked, Percy pointed to the book.

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to the sixth grade?"**

"I guess that's a good excuse." Athena mumbled.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, and then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

"I don't live there anymore Hermes you can't prank me there," Hermes and his children looked upset.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"The best." Said Artemis.

"Amazing" said Thalia

"Wonderful," Travis and Connor

"Awesome" the remaining demigods said.

"Beautiful" Poseidon said wistfully.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

Artemis looked confused.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, **

Everyone glared at Zeus who looked like he wanted to disappear.

**and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program.**

"Why didn't you help her?" Hera yelled

"She wouldn't let me." He whispered sounding so said that Jordan turned into a cat and wound around his legs to comfort him.

**Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"Awww that is sooo cute." Aphrodite and Persephone cooed while Hestia grinned from the hearth.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"She lied but didn't lie, I like her uncle P." Hermes shouted before being hit with a stuffed animal courtesy of Jordan.

"Some people have sensitive hearing idiot now toss me back Dio." He tossed her back her tiger. (A/N actually have a tiger named Dionysus I know his animal is a leopard but the tiger looked like such a Dio I named it that.)

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Understatement of the year," Mumbled Artemis as Percy pouted.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, and then showed his true colors as a world class jerk. When I was young, I nick-named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"He asked you for cash, I'm going to kill him slowly and make sure his life in Hades is hell." Thalia, Jordan, and Artemis looked so scary people scooted away from him.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

All the girls were gagging.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"Did he ever hit you?" Artemis and Poseidon asked calmly.

"No" Percy said. Jordan growled at him.

"Liar I can see it."

"Stay out of my mind." He yelled at her.

"Whatever happened to you I'm sure you deserved it." Annabeth and Jacob chuckled.

"Annabeth." Athena said astonished.

"Stay out of this _Mother_." Athena looked shocked.

BOOM

A sound like an explosion was heard from the middle of the room. Everyone looked over and saw a giant wolf larger than Lupa and it was glowing in anger.

_Quiet child, I have brought you here not for you to insult young Perseus, but to seek forgiveness for the wrongs you have committed, we are a tolerable god and goddess but we will not tolerate you insulting our family. _

At the beginning it sounded like Apollo but as it neared the end it sounded like a mixture of Apollo and Jordan. It transformed into Jordan who was lying past out on the floor. When she woke up Will muttered.

"You know something's bad when Jordan starts channeling Apollo."

"Shut up Will and get me some Tylenol or something before I explode."

Connor handed her a bottle and Annabeth now wary of Jordan sat away from her in a corner and they continued reading.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

Persephone looked ready to throw up and Hades rubbed her back to calm her down while Aphrodite smiled at them. Though no one but Jordan and Hestia could see it Hera was smiling at the exchange.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Athena gasped and looked at Percy who nodded his head.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof; he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

"He knows how to count? I'm surprised his tiny brain could hold such small amounts of knowledge." Clarisse looked shocked

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"Eddie always was nice." Percy said lost in a memory.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"If there is one thing you're not it's a brain boy." Artemis laughed at him while he pouted and put his head on her shoulder.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

Aphrodite, Persephone, and Hestia looked disgusted.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"Oh how I miss sweet, sweet sarcasm.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

Everyone quieted down at that.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

"You just called your mom a monster." Thalia said chuckling before being hit with a wave and to everyone's surprise instead of glaring at Percy she glared at Artemis who was whistling innocently.

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Momma's boy." Ares cackled still not aware of the outfit he had on.

"And proud of it, plus you have no room to speak" Percy began

"'cause you still live with your mom and your how old?" Artemis continued.

"And Hephaestus doesn't live here you idiot he just visits." They finished together. When they noticed the weird looks they yelled out "WHAT!" They just shook their heads and went back to the book.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Jealous." Shouted the demigods and the Apollo and Hermes.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"Such a caring mom." The second generation gods and goddesses said looking at Hera who shifted uncomfortable with the looks.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lie off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

As did everyone else.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"I think she's happy with Paul even if he's no millionaire." Percy nodded to his fiancé.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked**

**Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my con-science, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie you never lie to your mom." Hermes shouted and got a stick in the face and weird looks while Apollo cried dramatically.

"What have they done to you bro, first I lose my big sis and now my little brother." Hermes shook his head and said.

"I just meant they can always tell when you're lying and you get in worse trouble for it." Apollo looked at him as he, Nico, and Hermes' children said together.

"That's alright then."

**I felt bad lying. **

"Good," Hera said.

**I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said**

**there wasn't enough money.**

"Or he had just gambled it all away." Hera and Jordan growled together and Hera's usually stern face melted into a smile as Jordan smiled at her. Zeus was heard grumbling about how his wife never smiled at him.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He'd better." Thalia snarled.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all."**

**Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Oh bribery." Hermes whispered this time when he saw Jordan was now holding a knife.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

Aphrodite screeched and Hermes sent Jordan a look that said 'why didn't she get hit.' Jordan motioned at them.

"Aphrodite, dear your hurting Jordan's ears and after we're done reading I'll take you shopping for both you and Sally." Hephaestus said and Aphrodite calmed down immediately.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"DO IT" The entire room screeched and this time Jordan let it go.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"He has a brain!" Hestia looked astounded and everyone grinned at her.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

_Good I was getting tired of listening to him and his ugly **** _Luna muttered shocking a lot of people since they forgot she was there since she fell asleep.

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgot-ten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"_Like he'd be the one driving." _Thalia and Luna muttered angrily. Percy gave them weird looks.

**Like I'd be the one driving. **

"NO You think like Percy Thals/Sis." Thalia just looked at Jordan and said

"Did 'Pollo just call me sis." Jordan nodded and Thalia leaned back against Nico.

**I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain.**

**As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair-case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"Nope I was nearby and you pulled some Guardian powers out of me when you did that." Jordan stated grinning. Meanwhile Zeus was looking at his nephew in a new way.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"Like that would stop you." Nico mumbled

**I loved the place.**

"Of course you would Kelpie." Percy just groaned as Artemis smirked.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That would be nice since it's MY color." I'll leave it up to you to figure out who said it.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"Yes 'cause yours is just a streak." Will said smiling as Percy stuck his tongue out at him.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about**

**when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she**

**wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to**

**Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Everyone looked back and forth between the two before neither could handle it and yelled "WHAT" they just shrugged and said, "Nothing"

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a**

**D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"You visited him" Zeus thundered, Poseidon grinned and said.

"Duh." Hades just shook his head at his brothers.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

The boys and Jordan started drooling thinking of marshmallows. Both Artemis' sighed and snapped their fingers and a bag popped up in front of everyone.

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy**

**Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a map in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Like Hercules." Everyone looked at Hera who shook her head they looked at Jordan who was glaring at the floor.

"I assure you I was not dead merely acting like that, though you gave it a good try and had I been a real snake I would have been dead, since someone wanted me to keep an eye on you." She finished with a glare at Poseidon who looked sheepish.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you**

**to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"Ugh I hate your dreams." The demigods muttered

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuck-led somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion.**

**I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

"Hah I win." Zeus yelled before Jordan smirked and said.

"Actually I do since that battle was me and Triton because he wouldn't stop hitting on me. Oh and I forgot to do this." She threw a stick at him and yelled at him.

"Stop yelling. Though I'm curious as to how Percy knew we were fighting."

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming; the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. **

"Uncle P how could you forget." Apollo and Hermes said looking at Jordan to see if she would hit them.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because**

**Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be...**

"WHAT, WHAT this suspense is killing me." Hermes shouted and was knocked out by a flying hammer.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy**

**Hind quarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Finally," yelled Apollo.

Artemis just shook her head at him.

_A/N Please review and tell me who I should bring in next. By the way you better review I'm risking my neck updating today since its past my bedtime_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N pls review I get an extremely happy feeling inside whenever yall do, and tell me who I should bring in next, and for yall wondering where guardians came from its from my other story I know I'm a crappy writer for not updating that instead but I really want reviews in that as well. and I would like to say to whoever decided to report me that I did in fact read the rules 3 times in fact and it doesn't say we can't do this and how are we supposed to __Unleash Our Imagination__ if you report us 'cause I'm sure that this is within guidelines otherwise the name Percy Jackson would be copyright so I will continue this story 'cause I'm writing a fan fiction._

_Disclaimer: Own Nothing but Jordan Jacob and Luna everything else belongs to the __Almighty Rick Riordan._

The book was passed to Percy who paled at the title.

"**My mother teaches me bullfighting**." Poseidon looked confused.

"Sally doesn't bull fight."

**We tore through the night along dark country roads.**

"COUNTRY ROCKS" Jordan yelled before wincing at her own voice.

**Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind-shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

"My kind of driving." Ares grinned

"That's why your bike is always in my forge." Hephaestus started

"And you in" Hermes continued.

"My Infirmary." Apollo kept it going.

"And trying to get my pity." Aphrodite finished. Ares scowled and shot a smirking Jordan a glare, and she shot one right back.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. **

"No Apollo Hermes you cannot make them unless you can get my dear husband to wear them." Hera stated shocking everyone one from the past.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

"I'm totally telling Grover you said that." Thalia stated as he paled.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

"That sounds so wrong," Mumbled Will before Clarisse hit him on the back of his head.

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said.**

**"I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"STALKER," I'll leave it up to you to figure out who got hit with a can of whipped cream.

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

"He doesn't deserve friends after my daughter almost died." Zeus mumbled under his breath.

"DAD, I chose to die." Thalia growled at him.

**"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

"Oh he's not going to like that I'd be careful satyrs will trample you for such an insult." Dionysus said to his magazine who said back.

"Poor boy might not even make it camp, and I know you agree with me."

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty **

**"Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

"DUH, ow" Nico got hit with shoe.

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

"He just said it didn't matter." Said a confused Hera. Percy gave her an odd look.

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

Everyone laughed at Hera.

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit-stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"Why Percy why!" Artemis groaned keeping her voice low.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

Jordan winced for some reason.

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"Grover." Groaned the demigods.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

"I know a son of Hermes who loves the strawberries." Jordan said in a sing-song voice.

"Just stares at them all day long." Percy said catching on.

"Especially one in particular." Connor continued.

"But he can't pluck up the courage to just go ahead and pick it." They finished together, and watched as Travis glowed beet red trying to hide behind the couch, while his father chuckled at him.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me. "**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you. "**

"Did any one catch that." Commented Athena looking confused.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

"I never did figure out what that was." Percy stated.

"An ambush of Dracaena and Hellhounds." Jordan said in a small voice. Percy looked at her stunned before he continued to read.

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

So did everyone else.

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human.**

**She'd meant to kill me.**

"Took you long enough."

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

"Dad." Thalia said looking at Zeus.

"Why does everyone always blame me?"

"So you're saying it definitely wasn't you."

"I never said that." Hera hit Zeus on the head shocking everyone.

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay..."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch.**

**Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. **

"Sorry it was the only way to make yall miss the empousa." Surprisingly Jordan said her country accent becoming more pronounced.

**Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No!**

**Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

"That is so sweet." Hestia said smiling at Percy.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—?"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine.**

**Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge,**

**White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"I'm mentioned yay." Thalia stated sarcastically.

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

"So loyal." Hestia and Persephone said to a blushing Percy.

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns...**

"Are horns kelp head." Guess who.

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,**

"Grover the goat." Apollo repeated snorting.

**At the thing with horns that was lumbering** **toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

"Huh"

"He's saying that while Grover doesn't weigh as much as he looks he is still heavy." Jordan and Athena explained.

"OH"

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist high grass.**

"Maybe I should cut that so demigods have a better chance to make it to camp." Dionysus wondered out loud surprising everyone except Jordan who knew how he felt about demigods.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under-wear**

Everyone was laughing now.

—**I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms**

Apollo, the demigods and Hermes looked blue**.**

—**which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

These words stopped the laughter.

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

"That's what you're thinking when you see him, that?" Artemis stated shocked while Percy grinned and nodded.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

"Smart," Athena complimented

**"But he's the Min—"**

"**Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"How is it you got a smart lover Poseidon?" Athena questioned feeling slightly jealous.

"I don't know."

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

"Oops," Said Hera with an evil grin.

**Oops.**

When every on laughed at her she just shrugged and smiled.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what**

**I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.**

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!" **

Poseidon burst into a puddle of water Percy looked at him in concern.

"Is he going to be all right?"

"Yea he'll be fine once this chapter is over." Jordan called from her lounging spot on the top part of Poseidon's throne.

"She deserved to die." Jacob laughed and Annabeth edged away.

Another flash and Jordan stood in front of him Percy next to her. Both seemed more likely to breathe fire than Luna.

"Don't speak of things you know nothing of child." Jordan snarled anger in every syllable.

"I'm older than you and you wouldn't dare, nor could you, hurt me." Jacob said trying to keep his voice from shaking. Jordan lost her temper with a shout, a light shot from her and hit Jacob throwing him against the wall and knocking him out.

"Be grateful you are surrounded by the gods or I would show you my animal side." She spat angrily, and stalked to the couch and sat down by Will who tried to calm her down. Artemis drew Percy back to the sofa and read for him. Annabeth still looked shocked Jacob would say that about anyone and sat by herself in a single seat.

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash and she was simply ... gone.**

**"No!" **

**Anger replaced my fear.**

"Uh-oh, when Percy's angry only Artemis, Thalia, or Jordan can call him down." Clarisse said to the gods who looked shocked.

**Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"Need to work on your insults there bro." Apollo said to his now calm cousin.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" **

Percy, who had taken back the book, made it sound so stupid the demigods all smirked and said

"Raaaarrrrr! To you to"

**The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

"Most of your ideas are kelpie." Percy groaned something about having an evil wife who was out to get him and Zeus nodded with him. So Hera Gibbs-slapped him.

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

"Of course not," The demigods groaned as one.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

**How did I do that?**

"That's what I would like to know." Clarisse said looking at Percy in awe along with Nico, Travis, and Connor.

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

"That's what hit me." Thalia growled glaring at Percy who looked sheepish.

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

The girls looked ready to throw up; yes even Jordan and Thalia aren't completely immune to gross things.

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

"Took you long enough." Athena groaned. The Poseidon puddle spoke.

"Stop insulting my son and toss me some Advil I have a headache." Athena stuck her tongue out at him but dropped 4 Advil on the puddle and it absorbed it.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

_Aw Grover always thinking of food. _Luna spoke scaring a lot of people.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. **

"Not going to happen." Ares grunted.

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

"What were you saying?" Clarisse asked.

"What did I ever do to you?" Ares yelled at her.

"Maybe you should tell him about you know what." Percy said trying to keep things quiet.

"No I don't think we should _Daddy_." Everyone (not the futures.) looked shocked that she called Percy daddy, like he was her father. Percy groaned.

"Stop calling me that you make me feel old and I'm barely 18. I told you I don't like anyone calling me that." She smirked at his discomfort.

"But you let the Warriors call you it." Clarisse said with an innocent grin.

"Ugh no I don't, you have corrupted my warriors with your evil ways. And you know just 'cause one 6 year old called me that doesn't mean you have to too." Percy replied groaning again before reading the book.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

_Extra points for using his own horn against him. _Luna said looking at Hermes and Apollo who were nodding in agreement.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm-house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

The girls cooed.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be.**

"Ooh the ONE is it." Aphrodite squealed. Percy and Annabeth glared at each other and said together.

"NO IT'S NOT." Needless to say (But I'm going to say It anyways.) Aphrodite left them alone.

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Okay I have a question, why aren't you in the book I met you in Yancy one time." Percy asked

"Because I never did anything big with you."

_A/N pls Review. _

_Challenge time._

_I put something in here and I want you to tell me what it's from._

_*Hint* It's from a tv show and has something to do with Hera._


	5. LUNCH TIME :

_A/N the answer was NCIS I'm totally addicted to it. SO Morgue you were correct. Have a cookie. And I would like to say once again I DID read the guidelines and if you don't thinks so too bad I'm not trying to be mean but thousands of people have written these types of stories and guess what the name __**PERCY JACKSON **__is a copyright name so unless you're going to kick every one off the site stop bullying me. Cause technically everything on this site is not allowed since it contains copyrighted material and if Rick Riordan didn't want us to he would have told fan fiction._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson._

"LUNCH TIME." Apollo, Hermes, and the boys from the future ran from the room and they heard a crash from the kitchen. Artemis and Jordan grinned and walked with the remaining gods and goddesses to the kitchen and found it a mess. Stuff was thrown everywhere and Percy was digging through a drawer, he looked up when they walked in.

"Do you have any blue food dye?" Athena groaned and walked over to a cupboard and pulled some out.

"You're worse than your father." Percy grinned at her and went to his spot next to Artemis'.

After 5 minutes of silence the gods heard a familiar laugh and looked over to see Jordan smacking Will saying.

"No not after you tickled me." He pouted and she laughed at him.

"Please it will only take a few minutes."

"More like a few hours and the answer is No." She turned back to her pasta. Will pouted and looked at her giving her the puppy dog eyes. She ignored him, amusing the gods. After a few minutes she leaned back and said.

"Fine, but be back in time to read the book." He looked at her than jumped up kissed her cheek yelled "Love you" and ran up to Travis and Connor spoke to them then they all left the room. Clarisse, Thalia, and Nico were talking when Thalia said.

"Go ahead Nico." Nico jumped up gave her a hug and ran from the room. Jacob and Annabeth left with their food to go to the throne room and eat.

Percy kept his head down but kept shooting glances at the door, like he was wondering if he could make a run for it. Artemis smirked at Jordan who nodded her head.

"You can go Percy before they start without you." Percy like the others he jumped up, he hugged Artemis, saluted to Jordan and ran to catch up with the boys.

"Sometimes I wonder if life would be better without them." Clarisse considered. The whole group laughed together.

"I wonder what Chris would say to that. And I couldn't live without having at least one boy in my life it would be so boring." Thalia said to Clarisse who smacked her.

"I wonder what life would be like if we had said no to them. Oh my life would miserable without Will in it." Jordan stated

"And without Percy."

"Or Chris."

"Or Nico being Nico." They shivered before laughing again.

"So you and Percy are actually getting married?" Apollo asked making them jump since they forgot about the gods.

"Yes I am and he is hell a lot better than Triton, no offense Poseidon." Poseidon waved it off.

"Oh I hate Triton he keeps hitting on me, even when I was single. Though maybe I should introduce him to Will." Jordan scowled as she said it.

"Jordan we don't need your jealous boyfriend killing Percy's brother." Clarisse said grinning so everyone knew she really wanted to see it.

"He wouldn't kill him just, severely wound him. And how would Chris react if he knew about that one kid checking you out." Clarisse scowled at the memory.

"While were talking mind telling me why you hate me." Ares growled out.

"You did nothing." Clarisse responded. Ares looked confused. (Not that unusual though)

"Then why do you hate me?"

"Ares she's saying when she needed your help you did nothing not you didn't do anything to her." Athena said rolling her eyes.

"Clair it's time to tell them." Thalia stated and Clarisse huffed.

"Fine Long story short I don't like my dad."

"Clarisse," Artemis warned.

"Okay, Ares was faced with a decision save me from torture and stop fighting or continue fighting, he chose fighting and he watched as I was dragged away and tortured for info about the Warriors. Needless to say I didn't say anything but I would have been stuck into Tartarus for eternity if not for Percy and Artemis. Then next time I see him he yells and hits me for getting captured and being unable to save his favorite son. When I asked him if he wishes I had died instead he gave me the only straight answer he had ever given me and said yes. I haven't talked to him since." Clarisse snarled glaring at nothing. The room eclipsed into silence, wondering why Ares would say that. Finally Hera stood up

"We should get back to the book." Everyone nodded and the future girls grabbed food for the boys.

"They didn't eat anything and I don't want to listen to them whine." Thalia explained when the gods asked why.

After waiting about 10 minutes the boys returned yelling about something.

"I was the winner Travis and you can't say anything about me being afraid of my girlfriend because you're afraid of Katie and you're not even dating." Travis blushed, bright red at Will's words.

Percy and Will kissed their girlfriends cheeks before sitting down. A bright light filled the room.

_A/N who is it you ask. Well I don't know yet since __**NO ONE**__ will send me REVIEWS about whom to send in next. Anyone else in love with NCIS? Just wondering, next will be a reading chappie._


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N future gods will be underlined. So sorry I haven't updated._

Voices were heard from the light.

"Poseidon you're on my foot."

"Chris, that's my stomach."

The light died down and they watched as a woman stepped out and was tripped only to be caught by a man.

"Don't go making a fool of yourself Athena." The man said chuckling. The women, Athena, glared.

"It wasn't me, Poseidon; it was stupid Father and his stupid bolt." Poseidon laughed at her before realizing the other gods staring at them.

"Hi how are you all doing?" Athena smacked the back of his head muttering "idiot" to which he mumbled.

"Love you too." Everyone from the past stared at them.

"Umm this is weird." Zeus choked out

"Still as empty headed as ever." Poseidon said dodging Athena's hand. Poseidon leaned over to Hades and said.

"Did my future-self think that it would be any different, this is Zeus were talking about." Hades nodded in agreement before a pinch told him Persephone had heard; he turned to look at her before noticing she was smiling at him.

"Dad where are the others, I heard Chris' name." Clarisse perked up at her boy-friends name.

"We are right here. Chris Rodriguez at your service; boy-friend of Clarisse, honorary warrior, and son of the totally awesome Hermes." Travis and Connor cheered as Chris walked over and sat next to them and Clarisse.

"Katie Gardner local gardener, honorary warrior and hunter, daughter of Demeter." She sat next Travis while Connor wolf-whistled.

"Poseidon."

"Athena."

They sat on thrones they made and finally saw the shocked look on Athena's face and the nonchalant look on Poseidon's.

"Percy if you are not going to helpful why, do I put up with you?" Athena questioned. Percy grinned at her.

"Because Poseidon makes you, and I'm totally awesome."

"You know just because you think that doesn't mean it's the truth." Athena said at the same time Jordan stated.

"Who told you that lie?" The girls looked at each other before grinning and high fiving while Percy pouted.

"Can someone please explain what is going on here?" Poseidon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope I really don't feel like it; just remember the last bit of the letter we sent." Poseidon answered himself.

"About Zeus always being a heartless bastard." Jordan asked with an innocent look on her face while the demigods all thought 'Only Jordan.'

"While that part is true," Poseidon started

"He meant." Athena kept going.

"The other part" they finished together. Everyone from the past stared at them.

"What" they asked and Percy and Jordan just shook their heads.

"UMMMMMM can we read now?" Poseidon asked

"The Horror, Poseidon wants to read." Athena teased and Poseidon grumbled.

"Yes, yes I get it I spend way too much time around you ha-ha now can we read please." He grabbed the book and started to read.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. **

"That's weird even for you." Chris stated and Percy shrugged.

**Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food. **

"My best dream." Percy sighed and Jordan threw a pillow at his head.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. **

"SOOOOOO cute." Aphrodite squealed and Annabeth and Percy glared at each other.

**The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"Awww." Aphrodite cooed again this time Artemis glared at her and she flinched back.

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around; as if afraid someone would over-hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

"Stolen hmm." Athena looked at her older version and mouthed 'lightning bolt.' She nodded her head.

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

"Can't believe she thought you would know." Artemis said to Percy who was pouting.

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"You already miss her." Aphrodite squealed again and Percy and Annabeth glared at each other again.

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes— at least a dozen of them—on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"Argus" Hera said smiling.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to.**

"That's horrible." Hestia said softly and everyone smiled at her.

**I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest.**

"Do I want to know how you know how that feels?" Poseidon asked and Percy replied.

"Nope." And popped the P.

**My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

"How do you know it was for you? It could have been mine." Chris questioned with a confused look. Clarisse smacked his arm and he grinned at her.

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"Thalia calls him the same thing." Katie and Travis choked out Apollo and Hermes were on the floor laughing with Nico and Connor.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

The room went quiet and Jordan let out a mournful howl in respect to Sally.

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

"Why do you want a shoe box you have both shoes?" Poseidon said trying to lighten the mood. Athena smacked his head and Jordan threw _her_ shoe at him causing people to laugh.

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

"Not your best idea Perce." Thalia mumbled. Percy stuck his tongue out.

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea—"**

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

**He looked down.**

Everyone gave a moment of silence as the sound of waves filled the room.

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

"What is that supposed to mean." Thalia growled literally sparking. Percy hid behind Artemis who laughed at him.

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"Real deep bro," Apollo said solemnly

"I guess that's okay." Thalia muttered.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm—I'm the worst satyr in the world.".**

"Stupid Goat." All the demigods muttered

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

Thunder rumbled outside Olympus.

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

"No Travis you can't shave Grover's head." Katie stated sighing and Travis looked very disappointed.

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even the Minotaur. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?**

"No that would never happen." Jordan stated firmly. Poseidon gave her a weird look.

**No. That would never happen. **

Everyone laughed at Jordan, who blushed bright red and hid her face in Will's chest.

**Would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something. Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid—poor goat, satyr, whatever—looked as if he expected to be hit.**

"I think he did, remember Dionysus was there." Nico stated.

"I would never hurt my satyrs Natalie." Dionysus drawled glaring at Nico who hid behind Thalia who was laughing.

"Why are laughing he's your brother." Thalia shut up quick.

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

"So sweet." ALL the goddesses cooed. (Yes even Hera.)

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

**"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

"Do you relate everything to the sea." Artemis asked. Percy and the two Poseidon's looked at each other.

"Eee-YUP." They said together.

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips. I recoiled at the taste, **

"WHY NECTAR IS AWESOME." Apollo, Hermes, the Stolls, and Chris yelled, each got hit by Jordan with a rubber chicken.

**because I was expecting apple juice. **

"Oh I taste pie." Hermes stated

"Chocolate," Apollo

"Strawberries." Travis said staring at Katie who didn't notice.

"Honey." Katie said blushing and Travis started blushing.

"Raisins" Connor.

"Vanilla ice cream." Thalia

"Neapolitan ice cream."(a/n yuck :P) Nico

"Chicken." Chris and Clarisse.

"Fish and cookies" the Poseidon's and Percy.

"Cookies."

"Steak." Will and Jordan blushed at saying the same thing.

"Shut up already." Demeter fumed.

**It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies—my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting.**

All the demigods who had tasted them were lost in memory.

**Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy.**

**My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

"Such a sweet mother." Hera stated.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

"NO" everyone yelled.

"Why not." Asked Apollo

"They'll burst into flames." Hermes told him.

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home-made."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

"Is that good?" Katie asked

"Very good." Thalia said

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

"Good" Artemis said.

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley**

**marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture—an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena—except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods.**

**Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"Yep you're hallucinating. Those pegasi definitely don't have wings." Jordan stated and Percy shot her a dirty look.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it**

**was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels— what do you call them, hubbubs?**

**No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

"I do not Pierre and you would do well to remember that." Dionysus said in threatening voice and Percy nodded very fast.

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step-father.**

"Anyone could out gamble that bastard." Jordan snarled her eyes amber.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth**

**Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

"He just told you his name was Chiron." Nico said increduasly.

"Shut up." Percy shot back.

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.**

"Lucky my teacher was evil he made everything C and Travis never told me." Connor whined.

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

"Of course not." Percy said sarcastically.

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hit-ting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

"You silly little satyr obviously he is a stranger." Apollo said laughing. Jordan, Will, Travis and Connor, and Chris were blue from trying not to laugh.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy.**

**Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image.**

"What does that mean?" Athena asked her eyes glowing.

**They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

"It's true they really are pretty but intimidating at the same time." Poseidon said looking at her and Hades was grinning but no one could tell except Persephone.

"Why are you smiling my lord?"

"Oh my dear, I always knew they would end up together and Hermes has to take care of the underworld for me for losing the bet."

**She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! Or Wow, you're so awesome! Or something like that.**

"Ego alert." Thalia said to Nico who laughed.

"You're one to talk." Percy shot at her.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

Everyone burst out laughing.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

"Someone has a crush." Aphrodite said in a sing-song voice. Percy looked disgusted.

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex—Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym.**

"What's a pseudonym?" Apollo wondered aloud.

"It's a fake name used to hide your true identity." Percy said after the weird looks he growled out.

"I spent too much time with Athena sue me."

**You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

"Percy does." All the demigods shouted.

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've**

**made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a**

**lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I**

**decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy**

**memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

"And the ego enlarges." Annabeth snarled. Jordan growled at Annabeth, her eyes turning an amber color. Will could barely hold her back, Nico was holding Thalia, Chis was being held by Clarisse, and Katie was holding Connor and Travis back.

"Annabeth, please don't do this not now, please." Athena whispered. Annabeth gave her a horrid look but quieted down.

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother; let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

Dionysus growled at the insult and glared at Percy who was hiding behind Jordan now. She changed into a squirrel and started running around leaving Percy to feel the full glare.

**"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"Don't worry we feel the same way." Apollo and Hermes stated before being strangled by grapevines.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever**

**invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."**

"Do you know how to play basketball?" Travis asked Dionysus.

"Yes of course I'm not weird." He answered

"You are our favorite camp director D." Travis and Connor said.

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun—Chiron—why would you go to**

**Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

"Your mean Dio so mean." Jordan commented sounding disappointed.

"And you're not?" He asked

"I never said that."

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

"Stupid goat afraid of everything."

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no**

**matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.**

"That's because you are." Katie said.

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. **

"D that's not nice at all you shouldn't have said that." Hestia admonished and Dionysus had the manners to look sheepish.

**Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

"You didn't get to see the film." Travis and Katie blushed at having said the same thing.

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"—he pointed**

**to the horn in the shoe box—"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are very much alive."**

"Yay." Hermes said

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, Not!**

"NOT" Hermes, Apollo, the Stolls, Will, and Nico yelled. All but Will got hit with a gear.

"Why didn't he get hit?" Hermes asked wincing.

"Umm 'cause I like him more than you." She replied laying her head on Will's lap.

**But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!"**

**He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

"Wasn't that sweet." Jordan pretended to coo and stuck her tongue at him when he glared at her.

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God—capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal**

**with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—"**

"You know what Metaphysical means, oh the horror my son is smart." Poseidon mourned and everyone looked at him funny.

"Don't look at me like that Hades what would you do if your son suddenly acted like Athena." Hades looked horrified.

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"SMALLLER." Zeus roared.

"SENSITIVE HEARING HERE."

**"Smaller?"**

"Your dad thinks like Percy." Hades whispered to Persephone and Nico whispered to Thalia.

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

**And there it was again—distant thunder on a cloud-less day.**

"Zeus was annoying that day." Hera stated

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were**

**you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're—myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"Don't even start D." Jordan said clamping her hand over his mouth.

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"—I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody—"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals—they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he**

**wasn't.**

"Nooooo." Artemis said sarcastically.

"Sweet sarcasm how we have missed you." Connor said dramatically. Hermes gave him a weird look.

"Are you sure you're my kid." Connor waved the caduceus and Hermes grinned.

"Yep you're mine now give that back."

**It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards,**

**chewing his soda can and keeping his mouth shut.**

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of**

**Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to**

**explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that some-day people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

"That was low Chiron" Clarisse muttered.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

"They would but no one wants to fight Poseidon over here." Athena said nudging said person with her elbow.

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job,**

**working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and**

**woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

"Dionysus your restrictions." Hera said.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

"Sure it was." Apollo said sarcastically before being strangled by vines.

**More thunder.**

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed**

**unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

"Why so unhappy diet coke is awesome." Jordan asked.

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph that had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me.**

"No I don't." Zeus said

"Yes you do." Hera accused.

**The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely**

**horrid ten years! The second time—well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away—the second**

**time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told**

**me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

"Yeah unfair to us." Travis whispered and Katie giggled causing Connor to waggle his eyebrows at Travis.

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

**"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of**

**course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to**

**work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

"Took you long enough I'm surprised you found it that quick." Artemis laughed

"Shut up." Percy said pouting.

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

"No not beautiful enough." Percy said grinning.

"Is there something you need to tell me about you and Aphrodite?" Artemis asked a sparkle in her eye.

"No ma'am love you." Percy said quickly as if worried she would yell at him.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

"We're still surprised." Apollo and Hermes commented.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny,**

**plump little man **

Even Hades was laughing at him.

**was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines**

**choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

"You know that you only did that once when you were stupid enough to be captured by sailors, right. You're not very scary anymore." Jordan commented

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

"Yes, yes I would." Jordan again sticking her tongue out.

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"YES FINALLY I WIN." Dionysus shouted at the top of his lungs.

Hermes gave Jordan a look, and she nodded to the book her hands over her ears as Will rubbed her back.

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to**

**me."**

Dionysus dropped back onto his throne and looked so disappointed Hera summoned wine for him, but he didn't even touch it muttering.

"Stupid horse thing."

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. **

"Oh I am." He finally noticed the wine and looked at it as if worried it would disappear.

**He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

"Not going to happen." All the futures said in a sing-song voice.

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miser-ably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job.**

**He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like...in America?"**

"Nooooo we're in Golden Corral." Hades said sarcastically and Percy stuck out his tongue.

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No,**

**it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece.**

**Then, as you well know—or as I hope you know, since you passed my course—the heart of the fire**

**moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps—Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for**

**Aphrodite, and so on—but the same forces, the same gods."**

**"And then they died."**

"Do we look dead?" Zeus thundered.

"No but Jordan looks ready to find a way to kill yall." Percy stated moving away from Jordan.

**"Died? No. Did the West die?**

"Can we skip this it's just an explanation?"

**The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while.**

**Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places.**

"Okay Hmm. Monticello, Georgia there is only a few. Ha." Jordan called out.

**Like it or not—and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either—America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

**It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of**

**some club.**

"No you can't make a club Travis." Katie said to a very disappointed looking Travis.

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

"The million dollar question." Percy said.

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we**

**should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

"Yes because all he does is adore it. Not like he has an obsession or anything." Hermes muttered.

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His**

**blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his**

**belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, **

Only Apollo and Hermes laughed for some reason.

**but as he kept rising out of the**

**chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

**I stared at the horse that had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep.**

**Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

Percy turned to see the gods glaring at something and saw them glaring at Jordan and Will who had fell asleep one of his arms around her. Demeter was glaring at Travis who had fallen asleep on Katie's lap and she didn't seem bothered at all by it. They soon woke them up.

"Maybe it's time to eat and go to bed." Hera said and they were soon eating.

As they were walking to the bedrooms Percy caught up with Jordan.

"Hey, Jordan we're you sleeping"

"Probably in the hades room or the Apollo room. Why?"

"I don't want to stay with Jacob tonight can I stay with you."

"Sure, we'll stay at Will's bedroom since its bigger."

In the middle of the night a loud BOOM was heard and Percy was confused to see Will and Jordan grinning like mad.

_A/N 30 pages so happy. again so sorry it took so long I'm updating today and I'm going to try and update my Warriors story next week since I'm going to Tennessee. And I'm thinking of bringing in Thanantos and Jason maybe and that's it for this book unless I exchange Jacob for some one. More likely to bring in Thanantos Kay._

_Review, Review, Review, Review, Review pls._


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N hey yall I'm back and it's hard to juggle two stories and school so until summer I will just be doing this story sooo sorry I feel so horrible but I have no idea how to finish my other one so I may put it up for adoption. SORRY_

"I wanna read." Hermes shouted and Athena looked shocked.

"You can read?"

"Shut up. Anyways, **I become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom."**

"Cool that is now my dream." Connor stated.

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse,**

"Centaur." Artemis stated

"Whatever." She elbowed Percy In the gut.

**we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

Everyone burst out laughing.

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the Minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's him."**

"Who."

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

"Can you do a flip?" He nodded.

"Do one please, please, please?" Travis begged

"Fine." Percy stood up flipped and sat a down and shot Jacob a smug look until he got smacked by Thalia.

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

**"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

**"Somebody lives there?"**

**"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

"Just an undead mummy that is possessed by a cursed spirit nothing else." Jordan stated cheerfully.

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

**"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries **

"I know a child of Hermes." Artemis started

"Who loves the strawberries." Poseidon continued

"But he's a wimp." Athena stated

"And if he doesn't hurry his butt up it will be picked by someone else." Jordan sang

"Please stop that song." Travis groaned blushing

"Okay." Percy said with an evil smirk.

"I know a child of Hermes." Thalia stated.

"Who practically lives in the fields." Nico sang

"He stares at a strawberry named ka-." Percy sang.

"We get it shut up." Travis yelled at them

"You like Katelyn?" Katie asked looking confused.

"No someone else." He mumbles trying to hide his bright red face.

**while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.**

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It**

**worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

"Why not normal grapes." Nico asked

"Because they take a couple of years to grow and wine grape seeds are sometimes mixed with normal seeds on accident."(_A/N its true I bought grape seeds and got Wine grapes growing instead.)_

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with**

**music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

**"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector.**

**Really."**

"So sweet." Aphrodite cooed

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has**

**big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

**"But he did that!"**

**"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of**

**Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

"The council members are idiots." Dionysus mumbled and the demigods nodded.

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

"Wasn't your fault idiot" Thalia muttered at the same time Luna said.

_you were scared what else were you supposed to do._

**"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

"That was his." Nico stated

"I know." Percy groaned realizing he would probably say that a lot more.

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age..."**

**"How old is he?"**

**"Oh, twenty-eight."**

"he's 33 now"

"He's so old." Connor said with a weird look

**"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

**"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

"That's horrible." All the demigods stated as one.

**"That's horrible."**

The gods laughed at the horrified looks.

**"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."**

**"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

"Perseus that's personal" Hestia admonished smiling when he realized she had said his real name to make him feel like he's in trouble.

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked**

**about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea—a**

**tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.**

All the demigods groaned.

**Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."**

**"Yes, child?"**

**"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

"Yes, Yes it is." Nico chuckled darkly and Thalia smacked the back of his head while the Stolls hid behind the couch because Nico tried to scare them by summoning shadows.

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

**"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words care-fully. "There is a place where spirits go after**

**death. But for now ... until we know more... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

**"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

**"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."**

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with**

**trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

"Actually we were there the day before." Katie said and Percy stuck out his tongue

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

**"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

"Monsters and weapons." Clarisse said as if explaining to a 5 year old.

**"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

**"My own—?"**

**"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, and the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much),**

"Wonder why." Will mumbled sarcastically.

**the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said**

**they held sword and spear fights.**

**"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.**

**"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. **

"Unless your facing Thalia, Percy, Clarisse, or Jordan." Chris said nonchalantly

"What about me?" Nico whined

"What about you?" The other demigods asked.

**Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea.**

**There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

**"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the**

**subject.**

"You finally did something smart I thought you were hopeless." Artemis sighed in relief and Percy stuck out his tongue.

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They**

**were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

"I said bizarre not ugly." Percy said hiding behind Artemis.

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on**

**the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory.**

Jordan cheered for Hephaestus.

"Mine." He grunted.

**four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass.**

Katie cheered.

"Mine." Demeter grinned.

**Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at.**

Will and Apollo shouted

"MINE."

**They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).**

"Never seen you play."

"Too busy saving the world ya 'know."

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

"He saw me no one ever sees me." Hestia grinned at Percy who grinned back.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums,**

**big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the**

**twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.**

"Your statue is so creepy dad." Thalia shivered and Zeus had a 'WTF' look on his face

**Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded**

**with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

Hera grinned at the mention of her cabin.

**"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

**"Correct," Chiron said.**

**"Their cabins look empty."**

**"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. **

"I'm a mascot yay." Apollo and Hermes cheered.

**Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?**

"Because Zeus made a pact" Jordan stated.

"That he couldn't keep." Hera mumbled.

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

The Poseidon's and Percy cheered for their cabin.

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. **

"Took forever to get them." Both Poseidon's muttered.

**I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at**

**Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

**Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets**

**and fists. **

"Oh it was." Ares grinned

**The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its**

**eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, girls and boys, arm**

**wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She**

**zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

"Hey."Clarisse threw her spear at Percy.

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

**"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter**

**them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

**"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."**

**He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I**

**am."**

**"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

"I don't know about should be. He can't be dead." Jordan said a thoughtful look on her face.

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead.**

Everyone laughed at Jordan and only laughed harder when she hid her face in Will's chest.

**You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

"He will always be needed." The demigods stated firmly.

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.**

Most of the demigods and gods shivered at the thought.

**"Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

**"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

**"Why depressing?"**

"I don't know maybe because he watches all his campers die."

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

**The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

Hermes and his children cheered at the mention.

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I**

**drooled.**

Every laughed remembering what she had said earlier.

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting**

**up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek.**

"Bad pun." Hermes said before continuing

**There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in architecture**

**book.**

**"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"**

**"Yes, sir."**

**"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling.**

The Hermes children cheered while Hermes himself glared at the other gods.

**Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it...? **

"A Caduceus" Hermes said automatically.

**A caduceus.**

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds.**

**Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

Hermes again glared at the other gods.

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and**

**bowed respectfully.**

**"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me,**

**sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

**"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. **

"Naturally." Nico was soaked with sea water but like Thalia earlier he glared at Artemis.

**There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

**Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."**

**"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

**Everybody groaned.**

Again Hermes glared at the other gods.

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here**

**for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped**

**sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

"Luke." The demigods muttered.

**"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've**

**sworn she was blushing. She saw me looking and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor**

**for now."**

**"For now?" I asked.**

**"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. **

Before Hermes could glare again Apollo put and hand on his shoulder and said.

"Bro all my kids are now claimed." Voices around the room showed that all the other gods had just claimed their kids. Everyone looked at Hephaestus who hadn't spoken.

"What? All my kids have already been claimed. I only have a few." Aphrodite nodded and placed her head on his shoulder.

**I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, and no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

"Aw that would have been so cool to have." All the thieves muttered.

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly**

"So you were looking at Connor."

**, some me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

"My kids." Hermes grinned.

"US"

**"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

**"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

**"How long will that take?"**

**The campers all laughed.**

**"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

**"I've already seen it."**

"Percy she was using that as an excuse to get you out of there." Jordan groaned.

"I know sorry." Percy stated.

**"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven**

**laughing behind me.**

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

"Ooh last name you're in trouble now" Ares grinned until Aphrodite threw her heel at him.

**"What?"**

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

**"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"**

**"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

**"To get killed?"**

"eeh-yep" Jordan said cheerfully.

**"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."**

**"Yes."**

**"Then there's only one."**

**"Yes."**

**"And he died, like, gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."**

**"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up." Jordan said with an amused expression. Annabeth even blushed realizing it sounded stupid and Hermes looked at her weirdly.

**"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

Everyone laughed at her and once again she hid her face in Will's chest.

"Stop laughing Will I thought you were on my side." Jordan could feel his chest vibrating from him laughing.

"I am on your side love." He said wrapping his arms around her.

"Doubt it." But she stayed there instead of moving.

**"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole**

**I lifetime if you're lucky. **

"Which I'm not." Artemis and the Poseidon's were horrified at how nonchalant he sounded.

**But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them arche-types. Eventually, they**

**re-form."**

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"**

**The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very**

**mad."**

**"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

**"You talk in your sleep."**

**"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. **

"Would it?" Chris asked.

"Maybe, maybe not." Nico and Hades said together while the Athena's glared at them.

**"You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

"Why though they aren't very kind." Percy asked and Athena groaned.

"Idiot, it's one of their titles given to them in order to stop them from killing someone they are also one of the judges in the court of said person." (_A/N its true look it up.)_ Clarisse said looking at him like he was an idiot.

**"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. **

"Nope." Apollo said popping the 'p'

**"Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded**

**together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It**

**depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."**

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

**"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

**"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

**"He's dead. I never knew him."**

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. **

Everyone looked at her and were surprised that she wasn't sitting with Jacob and from her face she really had.

**"Your father's not dead, Percy."**

**"How can you say that? You know him?"**

**"No, of course not."**

**"Then how can you say—"**

**"Because I know you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

**"You don't know anything about me."**

**"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked**

**out of a lot of them."**

**"How—"**

**"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

"You guys are the lucky ones I have ADD, ADHD, mild autism, and I have Zeus' Paranoia which is sooo annoying" Jordan Muttered with an ugly look on her face.

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

**"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's**

**because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the**

**classroom. That's your battle-field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention**

**problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular**

**mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

**"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"**

**"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

**"Ambrosia and nectar."**

**"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."**

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

Clarisse blushed and smacked Chris who was laughing because he knew what happened.

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls**

**behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

**''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow under-stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!'**

**though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. **

"Nah I've said worse." Nico said cheerfully until Hades turned to him.

"What do you mean."

"Nothing Dad." He squeaked and Hades turned away grinning that his son had called him Dad. Most of his children hated him.

**"You don't stand a chance."**

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow**

**through on the threat.**

"I could've if your dad wasn't who he was."

**She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

**"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

Everyone burst out laughing since Ares was sputtering trying to make a come-back.

"Give it up, bastard." Aphrodite snarled at him before laying her head back on her husband's shoulder.

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

**"Percy."**

"**Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

**"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

"You're an idiot son you really are."

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by**

**the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the**

**bathroom.**

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. **

Clarisse grinned at that.

**She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower**

**stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I could**

**think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

"Really Perce, really." He just nodded to his fiancé.

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur,**

**but it just wasn't there.**

**"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right.**

**Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like**

**rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the**

**scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

"Stubborn idiot." Thalia muttered.

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my**

**head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind**

**me.**

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hit-ting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed**

**her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward**

**into a shower stall.**

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded,**

**too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of**

**garbage being washed away.**

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it**

**had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of**

**dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you ..."**

**"I don't know."**

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of**

**other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her**

**camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred.**

**"You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

"Still alive aren't I" Percy said cockily before being hit with an electric spear who's owner was soaked with water.

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close**

**your mouth."**

Everyone even Clarisse was laughing.

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made**

**way to avoid her flailing feet.**

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," She said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"Done."

"Let's take a break."

_A/N another done Review Review REVIEW PLEEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSEEEEEEE E. Thx I want at least 4 more reviews before I update so plllllllsssssss review_


	8. skip to below authors note

_A/n hey yall I'm here. Decided to drop some drama in ain't very good at it but work with me. for all the Annabeth lovers out there sorry and I love Annabeth a lot but she does have a different personality here. I know it's been forever but my computer messed up I lost my muse and the only thing that made me realize that I needed to get going was a review from fallenthantos. So thx to all my Readers I love you all. And most of this was thought up while I was half asleep so… yeah. oh and I'm helping a friend write a story so it should be up and time so see if it's out yet its name is The Missing Sisters.  
_

_**THIS IS JUST A REPOST because i have a new poll out and want answers next chappie should be up sometime next week sorry.**  
_

"Break time." Hermes shouted before everyone walked out.

**BALCONY**

Jordan had just left to go help with some pranks and Will was leaning against the railing when _she _came over.

"Hey Will." She whispered in a seductive voice. He glared at her and shifted away.

"Oh, don't be such a poor sport. I would be a much better girlfriend than Jordan." She said pouting.

"Go away Annabeth and leave me alone, and I actually like Jordan." He snarled but Annabeth just stepped closer and her scent hit his nose. It tempted to forget everything and just do what she says; he fought it off and stepped away. He was also tempted to say. 'Pee-yew you stink.'(an: had to put it there) Again she moved closer her perfume stronger than ever.

"Kiss me." She said stepping even closer. He tried to fight 'think about Jordan, what she would do, what the others would do, they would kill you painfully too I'm too young (and hot) to die (sounds like Travis).' But their lips met none-the-less and, after he realized what happened he pushed her away.

"Stay the hell away from me. Or I'll show you what Jordan taught me." She just smirked and walked away. Soon his memory was erased.

**OUTSIDE THE BALCONY**

What Will didn't know was Jordan had returned right before the kiss and watched as they kissed but she turned away before Will had regained his senses. Tears welled up in her eyes as she walked away, even though everyone asked her what was wrong, she ignored them and kept walking. She flew to the one place she could think. The forges of Hephaestus. Lots of volcanoes exploded. Especially when she told Hephaestus and Aphrodite what happened. Sadly that caused a fight between the married couple because each thought the other made Will cheat.

_**Percy**__**POV**_

I had never seen Jordan cry before it just wasn't her way. I asked Artemis about it and she yelled at me and said I was an insensitive git for not knowing obviously something happened between her and Will. Personally I think Artemis gone over the deep end; (Thalia said she wasn't surprised since she had to deal with me all the time.) Will wasn't stupid enough to test her anger. I'm not going to be the one who tells Artemis, I may be marrying her but she can still attack me. (and gut me)

_**Travis and Katie.**_

"You're annoying" Katie screamed at him.

"You're insufferable." Travis retorted

"You're stupid"

"You're the bane of my existence."

"And I feel bad for whoever dates you since it will be their own living hell."

Katie used her powers and tied Travis to the ceiling for his brother to find.

_**Third pov**_

A bell rang through Olympus signaling everyone to return to the throne room. When everyone started arriving Annabeth turned to Jordan.

"Your ex-boyfriends a good kisser, you know that don't you." Jordan launched herself at Annabeth before Will grabbed her waist to hold her back. Jordan kept trying to get to Annabeth; if they thought her wolf form was scary you should have seen her now. I dare you to fight a girl who was literally growling, had black eyes was murderous and would as easily bit your throat as bite a donut. (AN now I want a donut.)

"The cage." Percy shouted and a small cage appeared and Will placed Jordan in it.

"You realize once she gets out she'll kill you." Artemis said to Percy.

"Who said I was gonna let her out plus you should be happy I possibly just saved all our lives." She shook her head at a grinning Percy.

"You're a dumb ass."

"And you spend way too much time with Thalia and her mouth."

"Why is Jordan in a cage?" Zeus asked coming in.

"Because she's in a murdering mood again and I don't want to find out how a god can die." Travis answered happily though he was eyeing the cage like Jordan might break out any second and kill him.

_**Meanwhile**_

"What the hell got into you Jordan you never act like this and I doubt Will would have kissed her." Thalia said to her frowning. 'W_hy was Jordan so angry at Annabeth and Will all of a sudden." _ At the moment she was glaring at him so fiercely he was repeatedly flinching. When he flinched again Jordan sighed and curled up in the corner, looking around her eyes sad she turned Thalia and said.

"You know I really hate time outs." Thalia burst out laughing causing everyone to look at her funny.

Luna layed her body next to the cage.

"READING TIME, why is Jordan in a cage again." Apollo asked smiling stupidly because he obviously knew the answer.

"Idiot." Artemis muttered hitting the back of his head. Katie grabbed the book and started reading.

"**My dinner goes up in smoke."**

"Why?" asked Travis.

"It was suicidal Travis I'm sorry but it couldn't be saved." Katie said nodding her head like she was talking to a five year old. Travis glared at her but she glared right back.

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and**

**murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still**

**pretty much dripping wet.**

"Why didn't you dry her?" both Athena's asked he shrugged a goofy grin on his face.

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the**

**arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man)**

"Pan not goat man."

"Sorry Hermes."

"I don't believe you." Three shoes hit Percy and he looked at Hermes who shook his head, Thalia and Nico shook their heads, Jordan was in a cage that left…

"Well since Jordan can't we have taken it upon ourselves to hit Percy with shoes." Travis, Connor and Will said together.

"You guys are mean."

"We'll stop if you let Jordan out."

"So I can have the prank masters and the stealth queen prank me nu-uh."

**, and the**

**climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders,**

**sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

"oh I love that wall." Nico stated.

"We all know your emo but that is a bit extreme." Thalia told him like she was worried about him.

"I'm not emo." Nico said pouting.

"Whatever floats your boat cuz."

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

**"Whatever."**

**"It wasn't my fault."**

"Yea it was." Every one said together while Percy pouted again.

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom**

**fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the**

**plumbing.**

"Why does Poseidon and his kids get all the awesome powers." Nico whined.

"Because we are totally awesome." Future Poseidon got attacked by owls from Future Athena, the same with present Poseidon only present Athena did it.

"Shut up." Artemis said smacking his head before Nico tried to strangle Percy with shadows.

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

**"Who?"**

"Not who. What." Apollo said frowning.

**"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

_Never going to happen._ Everyone looked at Luna who hadn't spoken in forever. Thalia kept shocking Jordan to try to get her to stop glaring at Will who was moving around uncomfortable and flinching. Thalia covered herself and Jordan in a cloud.

"What the HELL is wrong with you." Thalia angrily whispered to her.

"Go ask ****ing Will." Jordan responded

"I'm asking you."

"I caught him _kissing_ _her_." She said before lifting the veil leaving poor Will to now be glared at by Thalia.

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when**

**I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They**

**wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their**

**shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

"Naiads." Apollo sighed and all the boys went into a day dream except a few. Nico and Travis were eyeing Thalia and Katie to see if they would attack, Poseidon wouldn't dare with Athena  looking at him like that, Poseidon was actually day dreaming about his Athena. (_Wait since when is she mine.)_ Hephaestus and naiads didn't get along so… yeah, and Will was being glared at.

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

"Don't, Naiads are terrible flirts." Both Poseidon said brightly and both Athena's looked shocked.

"You guys said something smart." Poseidon's started grumbling.

**"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."**

Poseidon looked horrified.

**"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

"You realize you just technically called Jordan and Thalia mental." Nico asked a worried Percy, who know had Jordan, Clarisse, and Thalia glaring at him.

**"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

An explosion was heard and everyone looked over to Jordan's direction. She stepped out of the smoke her body on fire, extinguishing her flames she looked at them.

"What I told you I don't like time outs." Artemis shook her head and said to her fiancé.

"She might kill you now."

**"I think you know."**

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

Said parent looked extremely proud.

**"God," I said. "Half-god."**

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

**"That's ... crazy."**

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with**

**humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

"Sadly no." Hera said glaring at Zeus who suddenly found his throne very interesting.

**"But those are just—" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth.**

"Less than that." Jordan said brightly which was weird since she was glaring at a flinching Will.

**"But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

**"Then who's your dad?"**

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

**"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches**

**American history."**

**"He's human."**

**"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

"Sorry Young pane-wan but she is right." Hermes said to a pouting Percy.

**"Who's your mom, then?"**

**"Cabin six."**

**"Meaning?"**

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

**"And my dad?"**

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

"Yeah she did." Both Poseidon's stated a dreamy look on their faces, lost in memory. The Athena's shifted slightly, both feeling kinda jealous. (_Why am I feeling like this it's not like I ever liked Poseidon?)_

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. **

"We never do." Katie mumbled sadly and Travis put his arm around her and she looked at him warning him that if it was a joke or bet he would be a very dead Stoll.

**"Maybe you're right. Maybe**

**he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens.**

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

All the gods with children had the grace to look ashamed.

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always**

**... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

Ashamed looks again.

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and**

**depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy**

**Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

The gods looked ready to disappear.

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or**

**Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. **

Annabeth was a stalk of wheat being strangled with Ivy with a clown make-over courtesy of Demeter, Katie, and Aphrodite.

**The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by**

**with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us,**

**it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense**

**us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause**

**trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they**

**get killed off. **

The demigods grimaced at the reminder.

**A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you**

**the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially**

**summoned by somebody on the inside."**

"Remember that one time Bro?" Apollo asked and Hermes grimaced and nodded

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

**"Practical jokes?"**

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look**

**into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

"I know a Son of Hermes." Connor started and Travis blushed took his arm off Katie's shoulders and opened his mouth.

"Guess what Connor's middle name is? Its…" Connor slapped his hand over his brother's mouth.

**"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads**

**of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a**

**college ring.**

"OH" both Athena's gasped.

**"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a**

**bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in**

**college."**

**"Why did you come so young?"**

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

**"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if**

**I wanted to?"**

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give**

**permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."**

**"Unless?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever hap-pens. The last time ..."**

"Things weren't so good." Jordan muttered an ugly look on her face.

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

**"Ambrosia."**

Apollo and Hermes started drooling until Percy snapped his fingers and a plate full of ambrosia appeared in front of both and a plate of brownies in front of himself.

**"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know some-thing?"**

**"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned**

**the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did**

**that mean?"**

**She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me.**

**Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so**

**normal ."**

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

**"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during**

**winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

**"But... how did you get there?"**

**"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special**

**elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You**

**are a New Yorker, right?"**

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but**

**I decided not to point that out.**

"You have tact!" Artemis, Athena, Jordan, and Thalia looked horribly shocked, Percy pouted and hid his face in Artemis' hair

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting.**

**A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something**

**important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you**

**came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. **

"Nobody can get along with him." Hephaestus muttered and his wife sent him a glare from her spot next to Ares who looked extremely smug.

**And of**

**course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work**

**together. I thought you might know something."**

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to**

**ask any more questions.**

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to her-self. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the**

**problem ..."**

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach**

**growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail**

**as if drawing a battle plan. Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I**

**noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous**

**smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. **

"Hermes's/us/ my kids"

**Thankfully, nobody paid**

**much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.**

**The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that**

**scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

"Of course not."

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked**

**like he could handle just about anything.**

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but**

**he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's**

**why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

**"Once."**

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story**

**had any-thing to do with how he got his scar.**

Hermes looked affronted.

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly**

**good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like**

**him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But**

**Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing**

**anybody had done for me all day.**

"So sad." Hestia, Aphrodite, and Persephone cooed and smiled at each other. 'my family is getting along great for once.' Hera thought and Hephaestus grunted like he knew what she was thinking. 'except those two.'

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse,**

**from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be**

**'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two**

**years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more**

**quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her**

**he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but**

**he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to**

**the camp."**

**"Somebody special?"**

**"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through**

**here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though**

**I'd never heard one before.**

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so**

**of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cab-ins, too, except for the three empty cabins**

**at the end, and cabin eight, this had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver**

**as the sun went down.**

Both Artemis's smiled.

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged**

**from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I**

**mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple**

**tree and come skipping up the hill.**

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs**

**and naiads.**

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the**

**size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the**

**tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench**

**with half my butt hanging off.**

"TMI" the irresponsible gods, the stolls, and the demigod girls screamed out to a blushing Percy.

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who**

**looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and**

**honey-blond hair.**

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she**

**was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He**

**raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread,**

**and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you**

**want—nonalcoholic, of course."**

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke."**

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real**

**place, then someday...**

**"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their**

**plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or**

**something.**

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the**

**ripest straw-berry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

**"You're kidding."**

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why **

**being would like the smell of burning food.**

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red gI was next.**

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

**Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-bak**

**on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't ha**

**did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, **

**again for our attention.**

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd bet-ter say hello to all you **

**activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five currently holds the winning slot." A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also**

**have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."**

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now **

**campfire. Go on."**

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where A**

**sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a s**

**blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted **

**my borrowed sleepingbag.**

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I **

**smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she w**

**bedbugs bite.**

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

**That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.**

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

"Creepy."

"My turn." Travis called and grabbed the book from an amused Katie.

_AN SOOOOOOOOOOOoo sorry that its late and short but I was busy lazy and wanted to get this up real soon. I have a question for all._

_Should I have Annabeth become Nice and kill off Jacob or what. __**REVIEW**_


	9. Chapter 7and a half

_**AN: Kay yall I have a poll up so answer it please and a special thanks to SecretariatSoldier who was my 50**__**th**__** reviewer so if you want me to bring someone in not on my poll just pm me or put it in a review.**_

Travis grabbed the book and started to read.

"**We Capture a Flag."**

All the demigods cheered.

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

"Ah day to day activities." Chris said getting weird looks.

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right **

"DUH" Apollo 'accidently' got hit by a shoe.

**about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

"Oh I love homer great writer." Jordan piped up

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow.**

"This ain't gonna end well." Athena said and Poseidon stared at her.

"You just said ain't and gonna, well the world has to be ending." She elbowed him in the gut muttering "idiot."

**He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

"Poor, poor, poor, poor Chiron" Nico and Thalia said together.

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. **

The goddesses glared at said gods.

**But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

"HA all of Hermes kids can beat them." Connor shouted and Jordan growled at him.

"Let's see how fast you are." She jumped up and chased him around the Olympus throwing random objects at him.

"She's not gonna kill him right?" Hermes asked.

"Aren't you supposed to know since you raised her, anyways he might be severely hurt but he'll live." Katie responded.

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

"Of course I would I'm awesome your still just Prissy." Clarisse stated proudly.

**"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.**

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**

"By now we have learned unless you're facing a monster you will never be heroic." Jordan said dragging an unconscious Connor into the room.

"What about Kronos he wasn't a monster." Percy asked. (in the background. "I don't need any reminders of that." Poseidon stated and his younger self looked at him. "Do I want to know")

"I'm calling him a monster." She stated sticking her tongue out.

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watch-ing me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, **

"Hell no" Clarisse muttered

**or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. **

"Sorry but we are too awesome for you." Will told Percy who stuck out his tongue.

**I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants.**

"Feelings mutual Pineapple."

"Seriously- wait that's not even a name." everyone burst out laughing.

**Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none.**

"What does he mean master of none, I am master of pranks and my brothers masters of lying." Travis stated standing on the couch before Katie pulled him down again.

**But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

**Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morn-ing fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, **

"Love that smell."

**even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night.**

"They scare the hell out of Nico, still." Thalia announced to everyone and Nico blushed and tried to hide his face.

**I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad.**

Both Poseidon's grimaced.

**Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...**

"Percy that's the wrong way to think." Athena and Artemis stated and Percy nodded his head but when they turned away he winked at Nico who gave him a thumbs up.

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay,**

**maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something?**

All the gods looked ashamed except the ones with no children.

**Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, who-ever he was, make a phone appear?**

"Because Zeus is an evil bastard." Poseidon stated.

"Language." Athena said smacking him upside the head.

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting**

**lesson. Every-body from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our**

**instructor.**

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

"Good, you have some of the best reflexes." Jordan said to a now blushing Percy.

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too**

**light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me. **

"Only Riptide is the one for me." Percy said and Travis got an evil grin on his face.

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

**"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

**"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

The demigods snorted.

**The camper snorted.**

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little**

**more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat**

**of his blade. "No, not that far up! "Whap! "Lunge! "Whap! "Now, back! "Whap!**

"ouch"

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

Percy grinned broadly.

"Activating Fishy-Powers," the Demigods shouted together.

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.**

**"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**

"Love that show," Clarisse said and was soaked with water by a laughing Percy.

**The Hermes guys gathered around. They were sup-pressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes**

**before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarm-ing technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

"Oh you have a choice but if you don't drop your blade it hurts." Jordan said knowledgably.

**"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

**"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"**

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword.**

**My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

"He realized how good you are."

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds**

**before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

**Clang.**

"Pay up brother." Hermes grumbled and passed Apollo 25 drachmas. Travis passed Katie 2 drachmas and Nico paid Thalia 13.

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**

**The other campers were silent.**

**I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."**

"Dude why did you say sorry." Hermes and Chris asked and Percy just shrugged.

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

**"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that**

**again!"**

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

**This time, there was no contest. **

"I wonder why?"

**The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my**

**weapon skidding across the floor.**

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said.**

**"But I won-der what Percy could do with a balanced sword... ."**

"Totally wicked- scary stuff" Nico shivered and Percy grinned at him.

**Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, rest-ing from a near-death experience on the**

**climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me.**

"I thought you were fire resistant."

"I am but I'm not Lava resistant gosh."

**My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask**

**Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

A squeal was heard above everyone and they looked up to see Jordan hugging a rafter looking green.

"Why are you squealing." Connor asked but she shook her head.

"Oh she's fine just afraid of heights or falling from heights if you want to get technical." Will stated and Jordan glared at him as everyone burst out laughing.

"Hang on you can face 4 titans and not show an inch of fear but you're scared of heights." Percy laughed and she nodded.

"Why not just turn into a bird and fly down, and how did you get up there." She shook her head.

"someone needs to go get her…" Katie said and made a huge vine grow from the ground until it reached Jordan.

"We could leave her up there" Everyone looked at Will shocked.

"What, it's just I like her better when she's not glaring at me. I'm kidding gods." They just kept staring at him.

"Anyways…why not you."

"I'm a daughter of Demeter I have a fear of heights, idiot." while Katie and Connor fought Percy and Will climbed up and got Jordan who was rocking in the corner before falling asleep.

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

"Gross"

**"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

**"So your career's still on track?"**

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

**"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. **

"The world is ending Percy Jackson has shown tact." Travis stated dramatically and Hermes looked at him weird.

"I'm seriously starting to doubt that you and your brother are my children."

**"He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's**

**assignment. So did you get it?"**

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded**

**with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

Queue face palms.

**"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"**

"Because he's the best."

**"Of course I'd want you along!"**

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

"Basket-weaving horrible talent" Chris stated.

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods.**

"That is really fun when you're talking to the gods about another god, I like using the gossip to play pranks, so much fun." Jordan said finally waking up.

**Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

**"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of**

**course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

"And she's horrible when mad." Apollo said.

**"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's,"**

**he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go**

**around having affairs with mortals.**

"That's my husband's job." I'll give you three guesses.

**That's her husband's job. **

Everyone laughed but Zeus who was deep red with anger and embarrassment.

**When we say the Big Three, we mean the**

**three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

**"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

The mentioned grinned.

**"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and**

**drew lots to decide who got what."**

**"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

**"Uh-huh."**

**"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

"I should but apparently I'm not important enough." Hades glared at Zeus while both Poseidon's laughed.

**"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the**

**Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant.**

"HEY"

"It's totally awesome," Nico stated and Thalia nodded.

"it's true mine has this really creepy statue of dad it's horrible."

"What is it pick-on-Zeus day?"

"YES" everyone shouted to him.

**Let's leave it at that."**

**"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion **

"That is not a word." Guess who.

**kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three**

**agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. **

"You think, just look at you all, some of the most powerful demigods of the past centuries." Katie stated and the mentioned demigods grinned.

"Stop grinning like an idiot" Artemis said elbowing Percy.

"Don't say anything Jordan."

"Damn."

**They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

**Thunder boomed.**

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

"OMFG Percy knows something."

"OMFG?" Hermes asked Jordan who blushed.

"Nothing daddy" she squeaked.

**Grover nodded.**

**"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"**

"You keep trying to believe that."

**Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl**

"_Little"_ Thalia glared.

**named Thalia .. . well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

**"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault.**

"I'm not little." Thalia shouted throwing a thunderbolt at Percy who fell to the floor smoking.

"Sorry Thals."

**Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They**

**have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. **

"I wonder why." Hades responded glaring at Zeus.

**Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."**

**He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them,**

"All three of them, that is nothing" Percy said grinning and Thalia rolled her eyes.

**along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends.**

**She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like**

**much. **

"At least you understand how much awesomer I am than you." Thalia stated and Percy stuck out his tongue.

**I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

**"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

**"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

"Houdini is weird." Nico shivered.

**"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

"I don't know why don't you ask them." Connor asked

"I don't want to."

**"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"**

**"No," I lied.**

"It's wrong to lie Percy." Persephone and Hestia said and Percy nodded.

**"I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

**"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If youwere**

—**you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a**

**child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry,**

**okay?"**

"Oh she would be soooo mad if she read this." Apollo, Hermes, and Jordan snickered.

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

_A/N: I know I cut this but I really needed to update and I have a lot of work to do for school sorry REVIEW pls._


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